Patrick Anderson

Patrick Anderson is a Professor of Communication, Ethnic Studies, and Critical Gender Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He holds a joint appointment across these departments and serves as a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. His research explores intersections of performance, cultural studies, medicine, and institutional critique, with a focus on violence, mortality, and social justice. Anderson has authored influential works like The Lamentations (2024) and Autobiography of a Disease (2017), and co-edits the Performance Works book series with Northwestern University Press.

Education includes a PhD in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, MA in Communication from UNC Chapel Hill, and BS in Performance Studies and Anthropology from Northwestern University. He completed a Death Doula certification at the University of Vermont in 2020.

Anderson has held leadership roles, including Director of Critical Gender Studies at UCSD and Vice President of the American Society for Theatre Research. He served on San Diego’s Police Practices Commission from 2018-2022. His research projects include Ephemeral Terror: Policing and Performance Theory (Guggenheim-funded), A Thousand Rehearsals (on HIV/AIDS-era queer kinship), and critiques of empathy’s cultural framing.

Key honors include Fulbright and Berkeley Fellowships. His work bridges academic and activist spheres, addressing policing accountability, healthcare ethics, and queer memorial practices.